How to Choose Door Hardware: Need some guidance in choosing interior door hardware for your home and you don’t know where to start? In this post, I’ll share everything you need to know and consider when choosing interior door hardware for your house including tips on choosing the right the styles and finishes!

HOW TO CHOOSE DOOR HARDWARE

You probably didn’t notice your door hardware recently unless you are like me, and find your door hardware from the 1980s offensive; but, it’s one of the most important features of interior home design.

When designing a home you love, it’s the little finishes like paint colors, door hardware, and the lighting that set stylish homes apart. You know that feeling when you are in a really nice house and everything just feels cohesive and of really nice? Well, you are likely responding to all the little clues like door handlesets, hinges, and deadbolts that are your first impression when you enter a house. Like when you meet a person, your initial impression of a house makes a big difference in your perception!

So when we decided to makeover our front foyer this fall and summer, we decided it was high time to make our entrance to our house reflect our style–classic with a twist. We had already gotten rid of the 1980s paint colors and wood trim; but, our dated gold hardware from the 1980s stood out as an eyesore everywhere you turned.

With so much going on with patterns and colors in our house, I wanted to streamline the hardware with something classic and understated–aged bronze handlesets and hinges. And to call attention to the focus points of the room–the front door, I chose shiny brass hardware.

TYPES OF DOOR HARDWARE:

Deadbolts

Levers

Handlesets

Smart Locks

Electronic Locks

Hardware & Accessories (hinges, door knockers, and numbers)

Depending on what purpose your door serves, you will want to select different products. Obviously, you don’t need a smart lock on your closet door! We chose to get handlesets with a back plate from Schlage so we could customize the style and finish to our home style.

For all three exterior doors, we opted to get Smart Locks, in particular, Schlage’s Connect Sense. It is easy to connect to Amazon Alexa, allows me to give the code to our babysitter, dogwalker, or anyone who is staying with us, and even unlock it remotely! It’s so easy, even my five year old can do it! Plus, it’s really nice for when I go running and don’t want to bring my keys with me!

For interior doors we used the following:

Handlesets with backplates:

For the bathrooms and bedrooms, we chose locking handlesets and for closet doors, we chose non-locking handlesets.

Hinges

The hinges should match the same finish as your handlesets for a cohesive look. Depending on your door and your existing hardware, you will want to decide on how many holes and the style (rounded or squared corners)

And four non-turning (dummy locks)

STYLES & FINISHES OF HARDWARE

For each of the types of hardware, you can choose from a variety of styles and finishes. Like I said earlier, we went for aged bronze on all the interior door hardware for all of the interior doors, and for the exterior doors to draw attention to them, I chose shiny gold hardware and hinges. I also made sure to give any exterior door a lever style handle which makes it easier to open. Speaking with experience of using both styles (door knob and lever) and entering and exiting our garage door a million times a day with a kid on my hip and bags in my hand, a lever style is way easier to use!

We chose lever style handles for our french doors as well because it gives them a fancier and more polished look.

Gold Tones:

Bright Brass

Satin Brass

Antique Brass

Silver Tones:

Bright Chrome

Satin Chrome

Polished Nickel

Satin Nickel

Distressed Nickel

Antique Pewter

Bronze to Black Tones:

Oil rubbed Bronze

Aged Bronze

Matte Black

My favorites are aged bronze like we did on our hinges and handlesets and antique brass (gold). Personally, I think that silver tones are too cool for my liking, and I like the patina that the aged bronze and aged brass give to a house.